Barts Health launches new psychological support service for staff
- Barts Health media officer Freddie Cocker sat down with Dr Carla Croft, consultant clinical psychologist to talk about the Psychological Support Service and how it can support staff with their mental health and wellbeing
- The service is a part of the wellbeing offer for Barts Health staff across all sites. They are working with Barts people either one-to-one or in groups or teams
- Led by Dr Carla Croft, consultant clinical psychologist and funded by Barts Charity, the service ensures that individuals and teams get the psychological support they need to deal with the consequences of the pandemic and beyond.
The #TeamBartsHealth Psychological Support Service launched 1 March 2021 to help support staff with their mental health and wellbeing.
The service is a part of the wellbeing offer for Barts Health staff across all sites. They are working with Barts people either one-to-one or in groups or teams. The service is available to complete short-term pieces of psychology work and keep all details in the strictest confidence.
Led by Dr Carla Croft, consultant clinical psychologist and funded by Barts Charity, the service ensures that individuals and teams get the psychological support they need to deal with the consequences of the pandemic and beyond.
The service is also interested in being involved in quality improvement and other projects aimed at improving staff experience and psychological safety across the trust.
We talked to Carla about her hopes and ambitions for the service, the importance of compassionate conversations and why we need to reach in, not just ask people to reach out if they need help.
Dr Carla Croft said: “The inspiration for setting the service up was connection. This is something we’ve all lost at some point during the pandemic and human connection is our superpower.
“The concept of compassion and the use of compassion is really protective for people and what we’re hoping to do at the Trust is put our money where our mouth is - we want to put compassion in action.
“In terms of the 1-2-1 work we sit down with people for at least three sessions if that’s what they want and really just help them think about their needs, point them in the right direction in terms of community services and other partner services that might be available to them and do a broad and enhanced assessment of what people really need.
“Planning and working with teams is similar. We start with a meeting where we simply hear what has been happening and think about how we might bring the team together to promote compassion and connection. ”
You can watch the full interview below!